Rommel - Do We Really Need to Deconstruct Him?

Ulrich Tukur as F.M. Erwin Rommel.


Was Germany's Second World War general, Erwin Rommel, really the chivalrous "Desert Fox" commander of legend who is reputed to have plotted against Hitler? Or was he a deeply convinced Nazi and anti-Semite driven by an egotistical desire for fame?

German viewers will get an opportunity to make up their own minds on Thursday evening when Rommel, a controversial television drama about the celebrated wartime general, will be broadcast. The production has infuriated the surviving relatives of the general who committed suicide in 1944. Its authors stand accused of relying on the works of the discredited Holocaust-denying British historian David Irving. A German historian involved walked out in disgust.

Manfred Rommel, the late general and subsequent field marshal's 83-year-old son has protested that the film's portrayal of his father as a favourite of Hitler and a war criminal is untrue. "These are lies," the Rommel family wrote to the film-makers.

Churchill once described Rommel as a "great general" and in reunified post-war Germany, the field marshal is still largely remembered as one of the few "decent" military commanders to have served the Nazi regime. Because of his initial spectacular successes in the desert campaign against the British, Rommel became a favourite of Hitler.

Nico Hofmann, the film's producer, told Der Spiegel magazine: "We have carried out the demystification of Rommel... We have deliberately distanced ourselves from all the clichés. In our film he is not the victorious and noble 'Desert Fox' who was even respected by the British."


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Now, I don't believe for a second that, from an artistic point of view, this will not be a compelling film. Ulrich Tukur, especially, is an amazing character actor who is probably among the few actors who can successfully portray a complex historical personality like Rommel. That being said I am monumentally pissed at this continued desire to "deconstruct" things. Would it be that hard to let a man who was generally respected by his enemies and by his own soldiers stand as that? What is it with these 1968er-influenced people being so hellbent on destroying the last positive vestiges of this dark part of history that they even enlist the help and expertise of people like holocaust-denier David Irving. I think that's a new low, even for that bunch!